Eclipse
| domains = Demon, Night, Trickery, Void | holy days = None | favored weapon = Dagger | channel divinity = None }} Banished from this realm, Eclipse seeks to return to fold the world under his cloak of shadow. Originally, Eclipse was just a man, a tiefling named Maliyet Shale. He lived in the time after the Haphrises War, studying magic at the (then) new Arcanum Institute in Ezir. Through his research, he made contact with an erinyes named Ssarobasael, whom he had summoned in an effort to perfect his abjurative wards. His ward failed, and he was immediately enthralled by the devil. He met his death at the hands of then Dean of Abjuration Faigus Alleir, who found him consorting with the fiend . Before she was banished, Ssarobassael collected the tiefling's soul to trade among the other denizens of the lower planes. Eternity In the Hells Centuries passed before Maliyet's will helped him to form into a minor demon. He fought to evolve and advance his station in the hierarchy of the Hells, serving and betraying more powerful demons as it benefited him. During a great battle with the demons of the Abyss, he committed his ultimate betrayal, giving over a contingent of devils to their demonic foes. For this, he was rewarded by Demon Lords and his soul was twisted into a shadow demon, in service to a more powerful shadow named Esthirax. Maliyet continued his rampage, betraying and ultimately destroying Esthirax and claiming his domain, a pocket dimension that overlapped the Shadow Plane known as Penumbra. Powerful enough to slip between Penumbra and Solia, he began to sow seeds of discord and malcontent in the mortal real. At one point, he allowed himself to be summoned by a young sorcerer named Aliyana Asiel, whom he had corrupted with promises of power. He allowed her to believe her faulty abjurations had held, and pretended to serve her in order to further his plots. When it no longer served his purposes, he killed her and assumed the form of another student at the Arcanum Institute: a young Erizandi man named Sennebma Abid. Forming The Circle In this form, he excelled at magic and drew in a following, who would eventually go on to form the core of the Black Circle. He maintained this guise until he was discovered by the paladin known as Ghostkin and the rogue Slipfox, operatives of the Brotherhood. Once confronted, he fled with his coterie to Nekhet, his coastal tower. There, he captured the agents that had followed him, bending Ghostkin to his will. Infused with demonic magic and will, the man served as his assassin, known as the Shadow's Hand. His hold over the fallen paladin was incomplete, however, and after a battle atop Esthefell Tower, the tallest of the spires at Nekhet, he was banished back to the Abyss. His final strike in the battle of Esthefell was to unmake the paladin, infusing an element of shadow into the man and destroying his mind, stripping from him everything he held dear. The human escaped, throwing himself from the tower and into the ocean, while Maliyet was banished. Revenge Maliyet seethed, lost in the depths of the Abyss, knowing he would be unable to return to Solia at full strength so long as that portion of his essence was locked within the empty husk that was Ghostkin. He returned to Penumbra, where he directed the Black Circle in seeking out the human and returning his essence. Unable to be still while he waited for the sacrifice that would restore him, Maliyet returned to his machinations and manipulations of the lower planes. Though incomplete, he grew in power and size until he was reborn as a greater demon, the largest and most powerful shadow demon ever known, and christened himself with a new name: Eclipse. Category:Devils Category:Demons Category:Shadow Demons Category:Lore Category:Demipowers Category:Deities